So it seems this topic is coming up a lot lately, just in the last 24 hours I have been asked this question on 5 different occasions lol so it seemed reasonable to create this post that I can forward people to the next time it comes up.

There are several ways to make beautiful prints of your artwork and it will be up to you to decide on the method that works best for your situation. I have learned a few different ways of doing this and that is what I will share with you here. This is not to say that these are the only methods out there, they are just simply the methods that I have found to work best for me.

First you will need to acquire a high resolution digital image of your artwork and there are 2 methods that I know of to do that.

Use a high resolution scanner - If your artwork is small enough to fit into your high resolution scanner then this is a wonderfully easy way to acquire your digital image. If you don't have a high resolution scanner, I have heard that there are some Printing Studios that will scan your artwork for you for a fee. For myself this was not easy to find and still to this date I have not found one, but you should definitely check it out for yourself in your area and see what is available to you.

Use a high megapixel digital camera - 4 years ago I wrote a blog post on Photographing Art if you aren't yet familiar with how to take a proper photo of your artwork you will want to start there. That post should teach you everything you need to know to get you to this point here. At the end of the Photographing Art post I discuss resizing your image for the net however for making prints you will want to keep your image as large and as high of resolution as you can get. You never want to try and enlarge a small image as this will cause the image to become blurred and pixelated.

Now that you have your high resolution digital image you will need to have a method of printing it out. Luckily for this there are many options available to you!

Print your own - This can be a lot easier then you may at first think! With today's technology it is affordable and easy to make beautiful Giclee prints right in your own home or studio! All you need is an inkjet printer, some archival inks and a package of quality photo paper of your choice. EASY! When looking for the right printer to buy you will want to pay attention to the specs and most importantly to the Maximum Print Resolution, as well as Minimum Ink Droplet Size, Printing Technology, and last but not least Paper Sizes. Before I started doing my own prints I owned an HP printer and I was quite happy with it, however when I started selling Giclee prints I decided to invest in an Epson and boy what a difference in quality!! What I love about the Epson's and they are as far as I know the only household brand of printer to offer this is the 6-colour (C, M, Y, K, LC, LM), drop-on demand MicroPiezo® inkjet technology. So instead of taking a black cartridge and a color cartridge that only has magenta, cyan and yellow in it, the Epson has a black, cyan, magenta, yellow, light cyan and light magenta. When creating art prints this is a huge deal as it can produce a larger range of colors and your prints will look much more true to the original colors of the artwork then with the single color cartridge printers out there. Now lets talk about paper size, most printers will print as large as a legal size piece of paper 8.5" x 14", I believe that is pretty standard for most printers. You may not want to go any bigger then that, however if you do want to go bigger then that there are options. Epson also offers over sized printers that print up to 11"x 17" in size. (I just want to let you know that I am in no way affiliated with Epson, they are not paying me for this blog post, I just truly believe in their product and think it is the best on the market for doing at home art prints) You have several options when it comes to picking out the paper you want to print on. Most commonly Matte, Satin or Glossy finish photo paper which you can get at Staples or Office Depot. I personally prefer the Satin finish as it is a much smoother look then the Matte but not nearly as glossy as the Glossy finish but this is all just a matter of personal preference, I do not believe that there is a right or wrong when it comes to the paper finish you choose. You may want to create your art prints on watercolor paper and that is alright too, it gives them a whole other look that can be quite beautiful. Again this is all up to your personal tastes and you may want to experiment to find out what you like the best.

Get a professional to do your prints - Even if you decide to do your own Giclee prints at home and are using an oversized printer you may still want to go even bigger then the 11" x 17" size and in which case will have to go see a professional. There are a few online options for this as well as brick and mortar ones. Here are a couple of links to check out online Fine Art America & Society 6 both of these options allow you to sell your art prints through them as well as order your own art prints at a reduced price so you can sell them yourself at art shows and exhibitions. If you rather find a brick and mortar printing studio a wonderful option is Costco, they use a Digital C Print Process which is paper that gets exposed with lasers or LEDs and is then processed using RA-4 photo chemistry (or some variation of) I can tell you from experience that Costco does beautiful prints and they are very affordable! If you don't have a Costco in your area you can check around at other photo labs, be sure to ask questions first, find out what printing process they use and get them to show you a sample first so you can make sure all the colors are going to come out right and you are happy with the overall quality of the print.

Once you have created your beautiful art prints you will need to sign them, a fine tip Sharpie will work best for this as it will dry instantly on the non pores paper and not smudge. Now the age old debate of "where" to sign your name on your art print! lol You will find many different answers for this, on the front, on the border, on the picture, on the back, on the left, on the right, top, bottom.... you get the point. You can search google all day long and find different artists telling you why their way is the right way. Again I think this is a matter of personal preference. Personally I leave a 1/4 inch white border all the way around all of my prints, I use satin finish paper, I sign my name, artwork title and date on the back right bottom corner of all my art prints. I am not saying this is the right way by any means, it is just simply the way I like to do it and you are welcome to do it the same or I encourage you to do whatever you think looks the best for you!

If you are going to be selling your art prints you will need to think about packaging. The absolute best, most affordable place that I have found for packaging my art prints is Clear Bags they sell every single size you could ever imagine and their bags are exactly what their name says CLEAR! Some bags may look clear but if you look closer or hold them up to a Clear Bags "Crystal Clear Bag" you will see that a lot of "clear" bags are actually very cloudy looking and this is going to make a huge difference to someone in the business of selling art prints! If you are doing an art show and have your art prints out on display you are going to want the customers to be able to really see your beautiful artwork through the packaging, trying to see the art print through a cloudy packaging is going to deter from the potential sale. The other important thing to note is that the packaging you are using is Acid and Lignin Free and Archival Safe. You don't want your art prints to start deteriorating inside the packaging. Once you have your packaging you will need thin cardboard to cut to size to slide into the package behind your art print, this will help keep the print straight and free from bends and creases.

Something that is not necessary but you may want to include is a certificate of authenticity. This can be something as simple as a little card that you type up on the computer with your name, the date and your signature just guaranteeing the customer that they are buying your original work. It can be as fancy or as plain jane as you want it to be. It does give your art prints that little something extra if you know what I mean.

I think that pretty much covers everything from start to finish however if I have left anything out or you have any questions at all feel free to leave a comment down below and I will do my best to answer your questions.

Friday, February 7, 2014

A couple of nights ago I shared with you my WIP of the journal page which was also my faces #4 and #5 for the 29 Faces Challenge.

I finished that page today putting me even further behind in the challenge but I'm not going to sweat it, I'm just going to simply continue working at my own pace and do what I do, and that's all I can do! lol

In trying to get 2 birds stoned and accomplish multiple tasks at once I have been trying to combine the challenge with other projects I have on the go so the journal page that I have been working on is part of a project I am doing called Travelling Journals where everyone in the group starts a journal and sends it out and it gets passed to each person in the group all over the world, each person doing a single page in each journal and every journal coming back completed to the person who started it. This journal page below is one that I have done in one of my groups members journals and I will be mailing it off to the next person on Monday.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Well it was bound to happen sooner then later! lol I have officially fallen behind on this challenge, but I am attempting with this WIP to get myself somewhat caught up.

(even though it might be cheating just a wee bit lol)

Mixed Media Journal Page WIP

So I am not quite finished this page yet, obviously lol Its 2 am and I am falling asleep with the paint brush in my hand so its time to call it a night. Did you catch my cheating? Face #4 is the girls face and face #5 is the pandas face on her hood. What do you think? Am I cheating or....

Thank you for stopping by, I will have some finished artwork and more faces to share with you tomorrow!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

My day 3 painting was done on a large piece of fabric which is part of an international collaboration project that I am participating in with a bunch of other women artists around the world. Since the fabric is so large unfortunately I was only able to barely get my part into my scanner, if I have time tomorrow I will take a pic of the whole thing with proper daylight. This particular piece was split up into sections so each artist worked on their section from start to completion by themselves. The section I completed pictured above is 12 inches tall and 7 inches wide and was done mostly in acrylics, some ink, washi tapes, markers and a few other things. I actually filmed the whole process and as soon as I find an extra couple of hours to edit the footage I will have the video up on youtube! It is now 3:25am and seeing as I have to get up super duper early I am off to bed! Good night and thanks for stopping by! :)

I am back for another round of 29 Faces! :)

Come back daily to see a new face! Just click the tag 29 Faces 2014 to find all of this years faces. If you have any ideas for this years faces that you would like to see me do feel free to leave a comment here with your suggestions and I will do my best to do as many of them as I can! I hope you enjoy my faces for 2014!

I am just finishing up my day 1 face and will be doing another post to share it with you shortly so stay tuned! Thanks so much for stopping by! ♥

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About Me

I have always loved the stranger, quirkier side of life and that is exactly what I love to create. My art being described as a perfect combination of sweet and sour that glitters up the grunge! As a lover of all things whimsical, kawaii and creepy cute, I'll throw in some bubblegum Goth with a touch of glam, punk & rockabilly pinup!
I have never been a mainstream type of girl and certainly won't fit into your stereotypical cookie cutter artists role. I find beauty in the truly unique, big eyed creepy little cuties with a bittersweet sadness. I am never happier then when I am in my studio painting or sewing, creating a whimsical dream world easily recognizable as my signature style of creepy yet cute, from the haunting darkness to the rainbowtastic, my creations are lovingly sprinkled with a heartbreaking sweetness.
Growing up a child of the 80's, pop rocks princess, with an extreme fondness for anything candy coated, Kawaii Kitten & Ziggy Stardust all had a major influence in the work that I am creating today. I employ many different mediums when I create, anything from painting with acrylics, watercolors and ink to sewing with many different textiles, the end result always being a whimsical dream world filled with big eyed beauties and quirky monsters of all shapes and sizes.

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Little Miss Muffet

Little Miss Muffetdidn't sit on a tuffetnor did she have any curds n whey

What she did have insteadis her pet spider Tedand they just sat and chilled by his web all day~ Lizzy Love

10 Ways To Release The Creativity From Within...

Visit Art Galleries or Exhibitions as often as possible.

Try thinking about daily things in rhymes, it will help broaden your vocabulary which is especially usefull for creative writing.

Change your routine, i.e. drive a different route to work, go some where else for lunch.

Open your eyes and actually look at everything around you, you'll be surprised what you see.

Every once in a while try to do something that you enjoyed doing as a child, try to release the child from within, children are after all the most creative beings out there.

Clear your mind at least once a day, if you don't have a clear mind you won't have room for creativity.

Make sure you ask yourself an out of the ordinary question each and every day. i.e. What if the grass grew purple?

Try picturing your life as it if it were a movie or novel, what would happen next? Who would you meet?

Talk to someone or some people that you normally would ignore, they might have something interesting to say.

Carry a pocket sketch book with you always and note interesting things.

My Mixes

"You either see a painting straight away or you never see it. Explanations have no value. What is the point of commentary? All such things are approximations. One should simply chatter, as we do, because it's enjoyable..." - PAUL CEZZANE

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If a pig drinks a quart of buttermilk before he starts, And runs a mile before he farts, And the faster he goes, the farther he gets, How far will he go before he shits? Now in order for me to win this bet, I must take you to where the fart was let, A farmer saw the pig pass with buttermilk shooting from his ass. And the farmer knew this to be true 'cause the pig shit buttermilk as he flew. Now if that pig can hold his gas, And run a mile with a puckered ass, it seems to me if he keeps his wits, he can run five miles before he shits. ~ Marve Matlack (RIP)